Some scientists believe we may be in a period of worldwide cooling. (Photo: Stock File)

Climate change views increasingly divided

WORLDWIDE
Saturday, October 24, 2009, 02:00 (GMT + 9)

A growing number of scientists, along with the general public, are disputing the common consensus over the causes and potential effects of climate change.

Recent studies have shown that the hottest year on record in recent history was in fact 1998 and that no increase in global temperature has been observed for the last 11 years, adding further scepticism to the climate debate.

Away from the growing number of complete sceptics, many scientists have been looking at solar activity and ocean cycles, rather than man-made CO2 emissions for the cause of the warming period we experienced towards the end of the 20th century.

However, it is not only the scientists who are questioning these claims, but also the general public. In a study conducted by Cardiff University this year, it was discovered that four in 10 people in the United Kingdom believe that many leading experts still question the evidence, whilst one in five are "hard-line sceptics."

The study also found that men are more sceptical than women, as are people who live in rural areas over those who live in urban areas, the BBC reports.

However, this controversy over global warming goes largely ignored by the mainstream media, who are still set on drawing-in readers through increasingly apocalyptic headlines and alarmist claims.

Simon Retallack of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has described the ongoing media frenzy surrounding climate change as “climate porn.”

In a previous article, FIS.com looked at how environmental activist organisations such as Greenpeace are, in part, to blame for the sensationalist claims made in the media. Government alarmism was also looked at in the article.

This month, a GBP 6 million (EUR 6.5 million) UK government TV advertisement has sparked outrage among the British public since it has been accused of unnecessarily frightening children. The ad shows a storybook where household pets are drowning due to the effects of climate change. The ad was made after government research suggested that over 50 per cent of the UK's population did not think that climate change would affect them.

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Professor Don Easterbrook of Western Washington University has said that the oceans and global temperatures are correlated. The oceans have a cycle in which they warm and cool, he says.

For much of the 1980s and 1990s, the cycle was warmer than average. However, in the last few years it has been losing its warmth and has recently started to cool down. These cycles have lasted for nearly 30 years in the past.

The global cooling from 1945 to 1977 coincided with one of these cold Pacific cycles.

"The [cycle] cool mode has replaced the warm mode in the Pacific Ocean, virtually assuring us of about 30 years of global cooling," said Professor Easterbrook.

Professor Mojib Latif, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that we may indeed be in a period of cooling worldwide temperatures that could last another 10-20 years.

Latif is based at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University in Germany and is one of the world's top climate modellers.

Piers Corbyn from Weatheraction, a company specialising in long range weather forecasting, is pointing the finger at the sun for the climate cycles. He claims that solar charged particles impact us far more than is currently accepted, so much so he says that they are almost entirely responsible for what happens to global temperatures.

Less recently, a Channel 4 documentary entitled “The Great Global Warming Swindle” interviewed a number of climate scientists who disputed many of the claims made by the IPCC.

Whatever the reality, there needs to be discussion and debate over what has become one of the most important issues of our time. FIS.com would like to take the opportunity to invite readers to join the debate and send any opinions and comments to opinion@fis.com.

Related article:

- Climate change alarmism discredits the science behind it

By Michel Loubet
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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